Copyright Statement in tstring.cc - correct???

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Markus Sabin
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Copyright Statement in tstring.cc - correct???

#1 Post by Markus Sabin »

Dear DCMTK developers,

a colleague of mine stumbled accross the copyright statement in ofstd/libsrc/tstring.cc. It states that this file is part of the GNU ANSI C++ Library, followed by a reference to the GPL.

Looking over the code, this does not appear correct to me, for it just contains test code for the OFString class. This file would definitely not compile outside the scope of dcmtk, which is not the only reason why I can hardly believe that it is part of the above mentioned library.

Is this a mistake in the license terms of have I overlooked something?

Best Regards,

Markus

J. Riesmeier
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Re: Copyright Statement in tstring.cc - correct???

#2 Post by J. Riesmeier »

Did you read the introductory sentence?
ofstd/tests/tstring.cc wrote:This file is derived from a file with the following copyright statement: [...]
The original, 20-years-old version of this file can be found here: http://git.dcmtk.org/?p=dcmtk.git;a=blo ... debb5a21af

Markus Sabin
Posts: 99
Joined: Tue, 2005-07-12, 13:50
Location: Erlangen, Germany

Re: Copyright Statement in tstring.cc - correct???

#3 Post by Markus Sabin »

Hi Jörg,

thank you for your reply. In fact, I really overlooked the passage you are pointing out ("GPL" is an eye catcher for commercial developers :lol: ), however, I do not see how that helps in assessing the licensing constraints. In particular:
[*] In that context, I would interpret the term "derived" in the sense of "derived work" which is frequently used in GUN's license agreements. Not being a lawyer, this would mean to me that this file is still licensed under GPL terms.
[*] Since absolutely no source code from the original GPL file is present any more, what was the reason for adding the passage "this file was..." rather than just deleting the reference to the GPL and providing it under the license terms which apply for the code that OFFIS developed?

Thanks again,

Markus

J. Riesmeier
DCMTK Developer
Posts: 2501
Joined: Tue, 2011-05-03, 14:38
Location: Oldenburg, Germany
Contact:

Re: Copyright Statement in tstring.cc - correct???

#4 Post by J. Riesmeier »

This is something OFFIS has to decide. I'll forward your request to the OFFIS DICOM Team.

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